possible feline herpes. help me understand...

Hello Stepanietx:   Grain free foods yes.   Lysine yes, currently 500 mg a day but people here say to consider increasing to 1000 mg a day during an outbreak.  I am starting famciclovir today and the vet has ordered an immune system booster for me to try on Percy.  Percy is currently just coming to the end of another outbreak.  The antibiotics have cleared up the bacterial infection but he still has the clear runny eye with squint.   Therefore I will do 7 days of famciclovir and see if that knocks the crap out of this flare-up.   Then I start the immune system liquid from the vet and use the regular dose of lysine.   Then at first squint I will double the lysine and give 5 days of the antiviral.   Hey I am hoping by the time he is a year I will have less of this to deal with.   And OMG I am going away on vacation with my husband for two weeks.   My niece will cat sit as she lives with us for university.  I sure hope her presence will help with the stress of me being gone.  LOL, I told her she has to sleep with my cats because they are used to cuddling at night. eeeek.

When his eye starts up, does it drain any colored discharge?  Has that ever been sent off to be cultured to see what it is?
 

Percy starts with a left eye squint.   The next day he gets a left runny eye, clear fluid.   If I leave it too long after that the discharge becomes thick, pus like and by this time the second eye is running.   The vet has not suggested culturing the fluid.   She feels fairly certain tht he has herpes and that it settles in the eye.  Now interesting, two days of famvir and his eye is looking great today.   So maybe we are on to something.  I have been instructed to complete the antibiotics and continue the antiviral for another 5 days.  Then the plan is watch for that first squint.    Oh, and she had ordered an immune booster (chicken flavoured) which I will give him when it comes in and see if this helps with prevention along with the lysine.   I will keep you all updated.

My thought is to get the icky looking stuff cultured.  You could be dealing with a secondary infection that needs to be cultured and have a sensitivity test run to determine exactly what the infection is and what antibiotic will most effectively treat it.  We had a year of Hannah (my herpes positive cat) getting sick, going onto an antibiotic, getting well for about 4 weeks or so, then having another outbreak.  This went on for MONTHS!  We finally had a vet do a culture and sensitivity test and it was discovered Hannah had an underlying infection that if not treated, would've eventually killed her.  I'm thinking that if you do the c&s, you will stop the roller coaster ride of meds, getting well, having an outbreak, getting meds....  My Hannah hasn't had a serious outbreak or even a flare up since we got the underlying infection taken care of.  It did take us almost 2 mos of antibiotics to kick it, but it was worth it!  Just my two cents worth!
 

thnx for sharing your experience. and helping each other here.

i am glad to read what others are going through...so i know what to look out for, IN CASE my grrlz do come up with it.

the eye squint thing scares me. Ivee..my kitten..just started squinting her left eye yesterday. nothing further, YET!

Just wanted to add, Church is 5 now and he has not had any symptoms even in stressful times.

Nekochan said:

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Just wanted to add, Church is 5 now and he has not had any symptoms even in stressful times.

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That's great. Makes life easier all around for you both.
how old was Church when diagnosed?

I am finding that a lot more people who are not having bad experiences with this virus. That makes things a little less frustrating for me...in knowing it may not be so bad, if it does turn out to be that my grrlz have it.

I do wonder though...
If all my grrlz do end up with it, would it possibly hit any of them worse because of age or is it a virus that generally starts the same in most cases.

(Had to edit 3 times. Ivee kept trying to lay on my chest and would play with her tail and that made me push wring keys. She even tried to type too. Hahaa!)

If your other kitties haven't had an outbreak by now, I doubt they will.  I have 2 other kitties besides my herpes girl and neither of them have caught it and they've been exposed.
 

My3Grrlz said:

That's great. Makes life easier all around for you both.
how old was Church when diagnosed?

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Well, when I first got him and he had the first URI my vet said he might have it, and he was just a feral baby then, approxmately 6-7 weeks old... Then when they were recurring when he was a kitten, the vet said that the herpes virus was probably the cause. We brought home our Maine Coon kitten a few weeks after we found Church, and they were kept separate until Church had a clean bill of health from the initial URI, but then they were together after that and she never caught the virus from him.

neither of my 3 grrlz have signs of the virus. i still keep an eye out JUST IN CASE.

BUT..hears the kicker......

i spoke to my friend..who's daughter has the momma kitty..and she said that her daughter was not told to give Ivory any meds after that visit to the Vet. she was only given eye drops..nothing else. so that is why i am still skeptical about it.

would Ivee have had symptoms by now if she DOES have it?
the Vet office i spoke to said that she could be a carrier and not ever have symptoms, IF her momma actually has it.
the lady also told me that it doesn't sound like it IS the herpes virus becuz the Vet would not have just given eye drops. she told me about the L-lysine as a lifetime medicine that cats with the herpes would have to have. Ivory doesn't take anything..period.

still a bit frustrating not knowing for sure. but no matter what, i am going to watch for the symptoms i was told by the Vet office.

I just wanted to share my experience with what to me is clearly Feline Herpes in my new cat Oliver, who gave it to his friend (my cat when I got him).  It has been an uphill battle, antibiotics for one, then the other, numerous times.  During all this I became aware of the L Lysine treatment for this condition (apparently if the cats are on Lysine long enough the virus cannot be active), I have been adding L Lysine from Walmart, I grind the pills (2.00 pill grinder) and add the powder to their food, this last time they finished meds one (can't recall which) started sneezing about once a day, so then did the other, but the Lysine seemed to keep it at bay, I have been adding more than suggested on the web, if you are trying to keep it at bay with minor symptoms I suggest doing this, it is just excreted in the urine if not needed.  IT WORKS, finally my cats are NOT SICK.  I will never take them off Lysine, NEVER.  If you grind your own pills it's not expensive and IT WORKS.  It takes a while to work, so if you are sure your cat has feline herpes, go for it right away, don't give up, it takes time to work, don't ever stop giving it either, it only works if it's in their system.

If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer.

E.

Thank You so much for the info. I am not really sure just what is going on with fuzzy and at this time there is no way I can take her to my vet for several reasons. I must explain this if you will allow me to, because I in no way want anyone to think for one minute I do not care for my animals deeply and love them all. I am a 59 year old very active hard working women I work in a sawmill as supervisor and run big saws and heavy equipment. I also cut fire wood for my family and others in our little town who cant get out anymore. I have a wonderful vet in a near by town who has worked with me for years. On Aug. 12th of 2013 when I was help a coworker I had a large railroad tie fall on my hand. at the time I had a great outlook on my recovery, I had lost one finger and damage another. But in this past year I have had many extra problems showing up with my hand now. And it has taken my joy of horse riding and hunting away(I only hunt to put meat in my freezer) So now I am waiting for my lawyer to get me to see a new doctor who will do what I asked at the start an remove the stub and finger next to it so I can get back to work. Living on my work comp is not paying the bills! Plus I have a husband of 40 years who is disabled and a 16 yr. old granddaughter we adopted at birth so my plate is full when you add in our 10 rescue cats from age 15 years to 2 years.(plus the ones who come for supper).

I still take in rescue cats from time to time but only if I can find them a good home to go to. But we will never turn away a animal or human who is in need for any reason. My Fuzzy Butt was found about 4 years ago in the cold and covered with is. I was milking cows at the time so when I got home I was greeted by a new family member, along with the one I brought home from the farm who was totally hairless and my boss said him would freeze if I didn't take him home. Cuddle Bug (long hair and 20lber) and Fuzzy Butt (now 12lbs and short hair) were both about 8 weeks home when they came to live with us. They went to our vets next day and back again later to get fixed. All our cats are fixed and healthy. Fuzzy has always been healthy. But a month ago she started with a cough and now sneezing with sometimes a little yellow snot. She is still very active and fat still eats well doesn't act sick at all but sometimes acts like its hard to breath. Do you think L-Lysine mite help her. Thank You

Oh my, I am not sure Rocken Gma, that herpes is the problem, from the symptoms you listed, usually sneezing is one symptom coughing I never had, my cats got conjunctivitis and sneezed, two clear symptoms of feline herpes, the vet never even told me to give L-lysine, I read about it on the web, the vet just gave antibiotics which helped but didn't cure the problem of course since it is feline herpes, if that is your problem it would be cured by continuously giving 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of l-lysine in wet food.  I think your cat really should see a vet, I understand the financial difficulties tho. Both my cats have had no problems since I posted.

First, any cat can catch herpes by grooming, sharing food and air borne I believe from another cat in their environment.   If a cat has herpes (or a number of them) it is not a terrible thing to deal with, cats who have herpes must have 1/4 teaspoon of L-lysine per day to remain symptom free, I put powdered NOW brand lysine in wet food for my cats (two have herpes, inactive because they take lysine, one I think may be immune, she came off the street as a kitten, in any case she has never had symptoms, the boys did, the second boy we got gave it to the boy we had.

There is no definitive test for feline herpes.  By that I mean a cat with the active virus may well get a negative test result even if tested a thousand times.  You can however rule other possible causes out, for sure, and if those are negative then the only possibility is the Feline Herpes virus. I adopted a young cat about three months ago and it looks pretty sure she does have the virus. I shall be taking her to do the above shortly to be sure. But the above information came directly from my vet.

I get the L-Lysine on Amazon as treats, the cats love them! This builds their immune systems so it helps with many ailments. I found out the feline herpes is a really common problem with cats, runny nose, discharge from their eyes. etc, the symptoms of a cold to a human. It really helps my cats when they start getting these symptoms, 1 treat in the AM and 1 at night.